Ask the Author: Sergio Troncoso
Answered Questions (6)
Sergio Troncoso
I would go to Tolkien's Middle Earth and spend some time in The Shire with the Hobbits. I would listen to their stories, try to get to know different characters, and follow them on excursions beyond The Shire to explore their world.
After COVID-19, I feel I need a good place like Tolkien's The Shire to regroup and experience again the wonder of being in a community. That's what I love about face-to-face interaction, the people I meet and the stories I hear from them. I am endlessly fascinated by others, and I love to listen to what they have to say. Perhaps that tendency has helped me become a writer.
For me even the natural world demands that we listen, that we pay attention. I imagine that in The Shire I would rediscover new plants and animals and how they survive and thrive. I think too often human beings put themselves at the center of things, and being a good listener is the opposite of that. You pay attention to what's around you and you wonder about the world. That curiosity helps you not only to appreciate your place in the world, but it also helps you to understand who you are. When I listen, I feel connected to what and who is around me.
After COVID-19, I feel I need a good place like Tolkien's The Shire to regroup and experience again the wonder of being in a community. That's what I love about face-to-face interaction, the people I meet and the stories I hear from them. I am endlessly fascinated by others, and I love to listen to what they have to say. Perhaps that tendency has helped me become a writer.
For me even the natural world demands that we listen, that we pay attention. I imagine that in The Shire I would rediscover new plants and animals and how they survive and thrive. I think too often human beings put themselves at the center of things, and being a good listener is the opposite of that. You pay attention to what's around you and you wonder about the world. That curiosity helps you not only to appreciate your place in the world, but it also helps you to understand who you are. When I listen, I feel connected to what and who is around me.
Sergio Troncoso
At the moment it is Aristotle and Dante in Benjamin Saenz's Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. This couple is about friendship most of all, and how that friendship endures pain and discovery and finally self-realization for both men. I found the prose beautifully written and the characters engaging. The book brought me to El Paso, my hometown, and it brought me to my youth in Ysleta, the weird sense of not knowing who you are or who you want to be, or whether any of it matters at all. I lost myself in this novel and in Aristotle and Dante's relationship, and through their interactions and dialogue I felt I got to know them, and myself, and the many secrets we keep inside, sometimes for a lifetime.
Sergio Troncoso
My most recent book is a revised and updated edition of my novel, The Nature of Truth, which was published in 2014. So I'll focus on that book.
I love philosophy in literature, that is, literary works of ideas, novels that explore moral questions, novels discussing and arguing about philosophy, whether this is done obviously or below the surface. One of my favorite writers was (and is) Dostoevsky, and I loved Crime and Punishment. Yet I also felt he did not quite attack morality at its core in this novel. Raskolnikov kills the old lady for instrumental reasons: that is, he kills her for the money, and not because she deserved to die. Also, I thought Dostoevsky copped-out at the end, when Sonya and Christianity save Raskolnikov. Wouldn't it be better, I thought, to write a novel where the protagonist does something morally wrong (but that he thinks is morally right), and then saves himself after he realizes what he has done? That kind of novel would really question the nature of morality, the nature of truth.
Beyond these and other literary influences (Nietzsche, for example, is also important for my novel The Nature of Truth), I was also a graduate student at Yale and I had experienced the winner-take-all mental combat that is the norm at many Ivy League seminars. There was a certain obsession with the pursuit of the truth, an obsession in which individuals would easily lose their humanity in search of the truth. I also believed 'The Truths' agreed upon at many of these seminars were just well-argued perspectives often incompatible, or even contradictory, with each other. In a way, it was truth by brute intellectual force. So I wanted to write a novel about this pursuit of an abstract truth, and categorization, that I believed was at the root of racism, at the root of dehumanizing individuals. When you think of this person as 'this category' or 'that category' it is much easier to do violence to that person because that person has ceased to be an individual, has ceased to have a empathetic connection with you.
Helmut Sanchez, the protagonist in The Nature of Truth, is half-Mexican and half-German. He discovers that his boss, a renowned Yale professor, hides a Nazi past. Helmut's mixed heritage (mestizo) allows him on the one hand to be empathetic to others not like him. Yet his obsession with the pursuit of the truth about Professor Hopfgartner also consumes him in a dangerous manner. Anyway, I won't say anything more than that, to prevent spoiling the novel for others.
Thank you for reading my work.
I love philosophy in literature, that is, literary works of ideas, novels that explore moral questions, novels discussing and arguing about philosophy, whether this is done obviously or below the surface. One of my favorite writers was (and is) Dostoevsky, and I loved Crime and Punishment. Yet I also felt he did not quite attack morality at its core in this novel. Raskolnikov kills the old lady for instrumental reasons: that is, he kills her for the money, and not because she deserved to die. Also, I thought Dostoevsky copped-out at the end, when Sonya and Christianity save Raskolnikov. Wouldn't it be better, I thought, to write a novel where the protagonist does something morally wrong (but that he thinks is morally right), and then saves himself after he realizes what he has done? That kind of novel would really question the nature of morality, the nature of truth.
Beyond these and other literary influences (Nietzsche, for example, is also important for my novel The Nature of Truth), I was also a graduate student at Yale and I had experienced the winner-take-all mental combat that is the norm at many Ivy League seminars. There was a certain obsession with the pursuit of the truth, an obsession in which individuals would easily lose their humanity in search of the truth. I also believed 'The Truths' agreed upon at many of these seminars were just well-argued perspectives often incompatible, or even contradictory, with each other. In a way, it was truth by brute intellectual force. So I wanted to write a novel about this pursuit of an abstract truth, and categorization, that I believed was at the root of racism, at the root of dehumanizing individuals. When you think of this person as 'this category' or 'that category' it is much easier to do violence to that person because that person has ceased to be an individual, has ceased to have a empathetic connection with you.
Helmut Sanchez, the protagonist in The Nature of Truth, is half-Mexican and half-German. He discovers that his boss, a renowned Yale professor, hides a Nazi past. Helmut's mixed heritage (mestizo) allows him on the one hand to be empathetic to others not like him. Yet his obsession with the pursuit of the truth about Professor Hopfgartner also consumes him in a dangerous manner. Anyway, I won't say anything more than that, to prevent spoiling the novel for others.
Thank you for reading my work.
Sergio Troncoso
The best thing about being a writer is that you get to live the life of the mind, you get to explore your ideas in books, and you get to empathize with characters who are often very different from you.
I think you have to be very self-motivated as a writer. I was always a loner and actually enjoy being alone reading books, creating stories, imagining other worlds. So having a life that allows me to do that most of the time is a dream. I think you have to be a hard worker as a writer. You need to improve your craft, to question yourself and never be quite content with your literary skills.
Another wonderful thing about being a writer is finding those readers who truly take the time to read and reread your stories, to understand them and dig deep into them. When you find one of those readers, or they find you, then you feel as a writer that you were heard, that your very solitary work found resonance elsewhere. You feel, well, not alone anymore.
I think you have to be very self-motivated as a writer. I was always a loner and actually enjoy being alone reading books, creating stories, imagining other worlds. So having a life that allows me to do that most of the time is a dream. I think you have to be a hard worker as a writer. You need to improve your craft, to question yourself and never be quite content with your literary skills.
Another wonderful thing about being a writer is finding those readers who truly take the time to read and reread your stories, to understand them and dig deep into them. When you find one of those readers, or they find you, then you feel as a writer that you were heard, that your very solitary work found resonance elsewhere. You feel, well, not alone anymore.
Sergio Troncoso
My advice for aspiring writers is to write. I know that sounds obvious, but I receive so many emails from people trying to write, or with an idea, and a plan to hammer out a story. But they don't do it.
As you write your story, read. Read voraciously. So that you begin to develop your aesthetic sensibility of what is a good story. And I mean, read Russian stories, Chinese stories, folk tales, stories from other centuries, novels from different genres, experimental stories, philosophy, history, poetry, and so on. If you want to be a writer, you need to be a reader.
When you finish your story, yes, have your family read it. But more importantly, have others read it who will be more objective (and brutal) about what is working in your story and what is not. You want to be critical without being self-destructive. You might consider joining a local writing workshop to have beginning or intermediate work looked at by different readers. You still need to determine whether their criticisms are valid, and filter these criticisms through your developing literary aesthetic.
Also, when you finish your first story, as you are undergoing the process above, keep writing. Write another story. An essay. Keep working, and don't wait for that first story to be 'perfect,' before you work on something else.
Good luck!
As you write your story, read. Read voraciously. So that you begin to develop your aesthetic sensibility of what is a good story. And I mean, read Russian stories, Chinese stories, folk tales, stories from other centuries, novels from different genres, experimental stories, philosophy, history, poetry, and so on. If you want to be a writer, you need to be a reader.
When you finish your story, yes, have your family read it. But more importantly, have others read it who will be more objective (and brutal) about what is working in your story and what is not. You want to be critical without being self-destructive. You might consider joining a local writing workshop to have beginning or intermediate work looked at by different readers. You still need to determine whether their criticisms are valid, and filter these criticisms through your developing literary aesthetic.
Also, when you finish your first story, as you are undergoing the process above, keep writing. Write another story. An essay. Keep working, and don't wait for that first story to be 'perfect,' before you work on something else.
Good luck!
Sergio Troncoso
I get inspired to write by reading. I am an aggressive reader, and I think if you want to be a writer you need to be a reader. So I am constantly reading novels, nonfiction, poetry (although I've never written a poem in my life!), history, philosophy, and so on. I also tend to read with a purpose. If I am working on a short story, for example, and I have a particular issue with 'narrative time' in this story, then I am also reading Alice Munro, who is a master of using time in short stories.
Also, I like to listen to what's going on around me. I pay attention, and cultivate my curiosity by what my eyes see. I think as adults we get too complacent about our surroundings, and we gradually lose our ability to be intensely curious, as children naturally are. To jump start my curiosity, I try to look aggressively, and I try to listen (and so quiet my all-too-noisy self).
Finally, I get inspired by the people around me. Of course, that includes my family and friends. But I would also include my neighborhood and acquaintances I meet. New friends. My earlier stories were mostly about people like my family, although not quite autobiographical. I would think of a philosophical question, or set of questions, I wanted to explore through my writing, and I would use people like my family or friends to play out this question through a story. I love philosophy in literature, and so my work often has an underlying philosophical subtext I am wrestling with.
Thank you for asking such a great question.
Also, I like to listen to what's going on around me. I pay attention, and cultivate my curiosity by what my eyes see. I think as adults we get too complacent about our surroundings, and we gradually lose our ability to be intensely curious, as children naturally are. To jump start my curiosity, I try to look aggressively, and I try to listen (and so quiet my all-too-noisy self).
Finally, I get inspired by the people around me. Of course, that includes my family and friends. But I would also include my neighborhood and acquaintances I meet. New friends. My earlier stories were mostly about people like my family, although not quite autobiographical. I would think of a philosophical question, or set of questions, I wanted to explore through my writing, and I would use people like my family or friends to play out this question through a story. I love philosophy in literature, and so my work often has an underlying philosophical subtext I am wrestling with.
Thank you for asking such a great question.
Sergio Troncoso
One way I deal with writer's block is by constantly reading. I think if you want to be a writer you have to be a reader, an aggressive reader. That means, reading stories outside your culture, stories from other countries, stories from regions you are unfamiliar with. Also, I love to read poetry, and I have never written a poem in my life. I love to study the lines of Emily Dickinson's poems, for example, for their rhythm and ideas, for their cadence. So I am constantly reading, even philosophy and history and other books that have little to do with fiction or creative nonfiction, and that's one way I keep from having writer's block for too long.
Also, if I am feeling blocked in some way, I change my routine, I take a trip, I do something that I have never done before, to shake up my mind and be curious again.
Finally, when I am working on a story, and if I can't find the right way to approach the ending, for example, I work on another story or essay. I usually have several projects going at once, and I focus on whatever is working on that particular morning.
Also, if I am feeling blocked in some way, I change my routine, I take a trip, I do something that I have never done before, to shake up my mind and be curious again.
Finally, when I am working on a story, and if I can't find the right way to approach the ending, for example, I work on another story or essay. I usually have several projects going at once, and I focus on whatever is working on that particular morning.
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